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Dhanjita Deka
Tuberculosis (TB) continues to prove as a major threat to global health. India has approximately two to three million people infected with tuberculosis. Therefore, a study was undertaken to assess the knowledge and attitude of community people regarding tu berculosis in selected areas of Rani, Kamrup (Rural), Assam with the objectives to assess the knowledge and attitude of the community people, to compare the knowledge and attitude and to find out the association between knowledge and attitude of the commun ity people regarding tuberculosis and demographic variables. Quantitative research approach with descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The selected areas were Rani Community in the district Kamrup (Rural) of Assam. Hundred community people w ere selected as study sample using simple random sampling (lottery with non -replacement) technique from the study population. A demographic proforma, a structured knowledge questionnaire and a structured attitude questionnaire was adopted to collect the necessary information from the study sample. The data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study revealed that majority; 47% had average knowledge followed by 30% poor and 23% had good knowledge on tuberculosis . The attitude towards tuberculosis revealed that, 46% had favorable attitude towards tuberculosis in the areas of diagnosis, treatment, prevention and support to the diseased person, whereas 54% participants had unfavorable attitude towards tuberculosis. Unfavorable attitude was significantly associated with female gender (p?0.05). Favorable attitude towards tuberculosis patients was significantly associated with high educational level of the study participants (p?0.05). While assessing the association between the knowledge of the sample and selected variables, no significant association was found.
Keywords: Tuberculosis, Knowledge, Attitude